ISIL claims car blast in Sanaa as air strikes hit Aden

At least two people killed and 16 others wounded following a blast outside a Shia mosque in Yemeni capital.

20 Jun 2015 20:04 GMT

Attack targeted a Shia mosque in Sanaa

Rebels shell several neighbourhoods of Aden

UN appeals for $1.6bn funding to rescue country from food crisis

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group has claimed responsibility for a deadly car bombing that hit outside a mosque in Yemen's capital, as coalition warplanes bombarded the southern city of Aden.

Since then, the Houthis have expanded their control to other parts of Sunni-majority Yemen, including Aden in the south, forcing President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government to flee to Saudi Arabia.

Saturday's car attack came just hours after coalition warplanes launched 15 strikes against Houthi targets in the port city of Aden.

A pro-government military source said the dawn strikes pounded the northern, eastern and western approaches to Aden, to isolate the Houthis and support forces loyal to Hadi.

In response, rebels shelled several neighbourhoods of Aden, killing four people and wounding several others, the military source said, a toll confirmed by hospital officials.

Meanwhile, two coalition air raids hit the al-Dulaimi airbase near Sanaa's international airport, while several others targeted Saada in northern Yemen and areas near the border with Saudi Arabia, witnesses and the Houthis told Reuters.

In Marib, a region east of Sanaa contested in fighting for the past three months, 15 Houthis and four tribal fighters were killed in clashes on Saturday morning.

Collapse of talks

The violence came a day after UN's special envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed announced in Geneva that talks between the warring sides ended without agreement.

Deep divisions in Yemen stall talks

"I won't beat around the bush. There was no kind of agreement reached," the Mauritanian diplomat told reporters.

The government is demanding in line with a UN Security Council resolution that the rebels withdraw from the territory they control, but the Houthis have called for an unconditional halt to the air strikes before they consider a pause in fighting.

The rebels are backed by fighters loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was forced to step down after a year of bloody protests calling for an end to his three decades of iron-fisted rule.

More than 2,600 have been killed in the fighting which has also left 80 percent of the population - 20 million people - in need of urgent humanitarian aid, according to UN estimates.